Surf lifesaving: Sizzling teen eyeing gold

Kieran Kruger completes another training session for the Central Region surf lifesaving championship on Saturday. Photo / Duncan Brown

Ironman's not shy to load up for club cause

If Kieran Kruger's surf lifesaving feats are an indication, expect him to do well should he achieve his long-term goal of becoming a pilot.

Succeeding in ski and board races is all about timing, picking the right waves and paddling with them in a manner appropriate to the conditions. Just as being a pilot involves selecting the safest flight paths and sticking to them with speeds suitable to the size of the plane, number of passengers and volume of cargo on board.

A member of the Ocean Beach Kiwi Surf Lifesaving Club for the past seven years, Kruger, 17, is regarded as one of Hawke's Bay's best hopes in the Central Region Championships which will be staged at Waimarama Beach on Saturday. Last summer's Hawke's Bay under-19 champion in the ironman and ski race events, Kruger will compete in at least seven events, including these two, the surf race, board race, canoe race and relays.

"My main goals are top-three finishes in the ironman and ski and surf races," he said, while taking a break during a two-day training camp he is conducting at his club.

"The aim of the camp is to get everyone back into competition mode after the Christmas and New Year's breaks," Kruger said.

A Napier Boys' High School Year 13 student, Kruger, has competed in three Central Region Championships.

"I was pretty stoked when OBK finished third two years ago. If everything goes to plan I'm sure we could finish among the top five on Saturday," he said.

With ironman being his preferred event, Kruger trains six times a week, swims three or four times each week and runs at least twice. A former Central Hawke's Bay Swimming Club member, Kruger, transferred to the Greendale club when his family moved from Waipawa to Puketapu last year. He first made headlines on the national surf lifesaving scene as a member of OBK's "United Nations" team which won the mixed beach relay sprint at the 2011 national under-14 championships in Mount Maunganui. The oldest son of South African-born parents, Kruger had Rebecca Shepherd who hails from Manchester in the United Kingdom, Sam Wong, who is of Chinese descent, and Kiwi Abi Collins in his team that year.

In 2013 he was Surf Lifesaving Hawke's Bay's Ironman of the Year across all ages.

"I've had some good times and I've had some disappointing ones too like when my paddle broke two strokes into the under-16 ski final at the 2013 national championships in Mount Maunganui. I also enjoyed competing for Hawke's Bay in the national Surf League, a provincial competition which is no longer staged."

Considering his success as an ironman one would understand if Kruger, who is also a keen surfer and underwater hockey player, opted for a path similar to Hawke's Bay's multiple national champion Dan Moodie and base himself across the Tasman in future. But he's got other plans ... once he finishes school this year he intends to go to university to get the qualifications required to be a pilot in the Air Force.

Kruger's surf lifesaving hero is Australia's greatest endurance ironman Caine Eckstein, a bloke he described as "a training animal".

With his younger brother Laird, father Dave and mother Pilar also lifeguards it's fair to say lifesaving is a family affair for the Krugers. Dave is a former boat crew competitor and Pilar is the secretary of the OBK club and a former winner of Surf Lifesaving Hawke's Bay's Volunteer of the Year award.

Programmes and Services Manager for Surf Lifesaving New Zealand's Central Region Jacob Davies is expecting more than 200 competitors from 12 clubs throughout the region and possibly athletes from Northern Region clubs. All four Hawke's Bay clubs, Waimarama, Westshore, Ocean Beach Kiwi and Pacific, will be represented, along with five clubs from Wellington and three from Taranaki.